Fun with Mustard Greens – and Jalapeno Peppers

So recently, my wife, Jalapeno Miss, has been challenging me with surprise ingredients. It’s a bit like a mini episode of “Chopped”, where she’ll bring in an ingredients and I need to somehow cook it into a meal. Last week’s surprise ingredients was Melanga, which was fun an interesting, but this week? Mustard Greens! I know what you’re thinking. Mustard greens aren’t exactly a surprise ingredient. I would agree with you, but as I rifled through my memories, I quickly realized I had never cooked with them. I’ve been cooking for years and we absolutely love vegetables of all sorts, but I must have passed the mustard greens on by each visit to the grocery store, opting for fresh spinach or other veggies.

But this was fun. Having never tried them, I figured I would prepare them as a side dish much like I would prepare spinach or other leafy vegetables. The results? Good! Here is the photo:

I normally don’t include onions with my spinach recipes, though I felt onions were a sure way to include flavor in case the greens were too bitter, and guess what? Mustard greens are slightly bitter, at least the batch presented to me. Bitterness is not typically a problem with greens, as you can include a fat to balance that out. I used some roasted pecans, which always go great with greens, though I think future recipes should include some bacon – maybe only a couple of slices, chopped.

And of course, don’t forget the jalapeno peppers. I include a couple of coarsely chopped jalapenos with the seeds and placenta included for heat – I must have heat – but in the future I’d probably include another 1 or 2 peppers for both flavor and heat. The last adjustment, which I included in the end of the recipe, is that I would probably saute them just a bit longer to soften them up, though they were really good overall as prepared.

About Mike from Madness

Mike Hultquist is a chili pepper and spicy food enthusiast with an insane desire to play in the kitchen. He's all about cooking with chili peppers, but also loves chili pepper gardening, preserving, and experimenting with new and creative ways to incorporate spicy food into life. He's also a produced screenwriter, novelist, food writer and web site developer.